Obituary

Sunday, October 11, 2015 Lloyd Douglas (Doug) Tise age 60 died of a heart attack at his home in Conroe, TX. Doug was a third generation pipeliner and was named after his grandfather Lloyd "Mizzou" Farley who started pipelining in California back in the 1920's. Mr. Farley started L.E. Farley, Inc., which became a major cross-country pipeline firm building many pipelines across the U.S. including the first 30" natural gas pipeline across the Mississippi River. Doug's Dad, Earl Tise is also a lifelong pipeliner who retired from Bechtel in 1983 and was a Superintendent and Construction Manager on numerous major pipelines in Argentina and Algeria from the late 1950's through the early 1980's and was instrumental in getting the Trans Alaska Pipeline (TAPS) construction kicked off and was Construction Manager on Spread 1 of TAPS. Doug also has a brother, brother-in-law, 2 sons, and 3 nephews who are all in the Pipeline industry.

Doug started working on the pipeline when he was only 12. He was not fond of school although he was always excellent in math, which would help him become very proficient at designing HDD crossings, which he was very good at. In his teen years he learned how to operate most of the equipment on the pipeline as well as a double-joint rack. He learned from some of the best pipeliners on spreads in Argentina that laid lots of pipe over all types of terrain from the Straits of Magellan across Patagonia and all across the Pampas. At the ripe age of 19 he was on the other end of the globe driving a belly dump building the haul road to the Yukon River in the winter of '74/'75 on TAPS. Doug covered TAPS as well as anyone, working as a Teamster and Operator and Foreman on all but 2 of the 6 spreads. Shortly after that he spent some time in Algeria building some major gas export pipelines from the Sahara to the Mediterranean. In the 1980's Doug would start doing what he loved most when he started with Laney Inc., where he spent over a decade estimating and helping manage the installation of more than 1, 000 HDD's all over the U.S. as well as several world record HDD's in Bolivia. On the first HDD in Bolivia the drill rig burnt down. Doug persuaded his managers the only way to complete the job on schedule was to fly another rig down on an Antonov, the world's largest airplane. A mere 3 days later Doug had the rig onsite in Bolivia and completed the HDD successfully and on time. This resulted in Laney being awarded another record HDD under the Santa Cruz River in Bolivia a few years later.

One of his favorite memories was going to Iraq right at the end of the 2nd Gulf War and being awarded a contract by the U.S. DOD to install multiple HDD's under the Tigris River. A mere 7 days after signing the Contract Doug had contracted another Antonov and hauled a complete HDD big rig complete with drill stem, track hoe, lowboy and pickups to the U.S. Army Stryker camp a few kms from the drill site and Doug was onsite shortly thereafter surveying in the first drill and sleeping in one of his shipping containers as their camp was not yet ready. Doug had both of his sons and a brother-in-law come over to Iraq to work with him and although the rock and boulders under the Tigris made for some of the toughest drilling in the world, they had some success and were able to get 7 pipelines pulled under the river including a 26", during wartime and despite having their camp shelled several times.

In the early 2000's Doug spent several years managing Laney de Mexico's HDD operations in Villa Hermosa, Mexico.

Doug was currently working for Isaacks HDD of Aransas Pass, TX, and was looking forward to the start of an 11, 400' HDD in Port Arthur this very week.

Doug is survived by his son and daughter-in-law Thomas and Rachel Tise of Wimberley and his son and daughter-in-law Darrell and Crystal Tise of Wimberley and his daughter Coralyn and son Christopher of Conroe and his grandchildren Mason, Madelynn, Molly, Georgia and Nadia all of Wimberley and his mother and father, Paula and Earl Tise of Wimberley, his sister and brother-in-law Nancy and Mike Sageman of Lakeway, sister and brother-in-law Katy and Jimmy Platt of Calallen, brother and sister-in-law Tommy and Jane Tise of Houston and sister and brother-in-law Molly and Chuck Morrison of Wimberley and 6 nephews and 1 niece. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the American Heart Institute or the charity of your choice.